Manufacturing process standardization can help improve employee recruitment, retention and satisfaction in your company.
Most organizations look for ways to improve their processes that drive outcomes such as growth, profitability and customer loyalty. That external view influences how they create and evolve the way they work and what they offer.
However, with our tight job market and cultural drive toward automation, companies now look inward to define relevant outcomes and tackle significant challenges, such as employee experience, recruitment, satisfaction and retention. This is especially true of manufacturing companies. Manufacturers’ problems start with attracting enough employees. Our culture’s general emphasis on traditional, four-year college degrees and the liberal arts close many people’s minds to careers in manufacturing. At the other end of the spectrum, the manufacturing workforce is aging: One study found that the skilled workforce will shrink by 2.7 million people over the next two years. Companies must quickly onboard those who do make it to the shop floor so each person gains confidence in their role and career path. As they grow with the company, they will face other challenges, from globalization and automation to changing customer needs and expectations. Employees nearing retirement age often cite these growing pressures as reasons to get out earlier rather than later. As a manufacturing leader, you can ease the minds of employees at all levels by introducing manufacturing process standardization that restores their sense of control and autonomy. The result drives employee satisfaction up, which helps both recruitment and retention. Best of all, process standardizations’ positive effects are not limited to manufacturing — virtually any industry, from healthcare to high tech, can achieve these.Achieve the Advantages of Standardization in Manufacturing with Operational and Process Excellence
One of the essential practice areas we address first when starting work with a client is operational and process excellence. Simply put, operational and process excellence is a discipline of discipline. People need discipline to go beyond “the way we’ve always done it” to “how we must do it now” — and they need discipline to avoid deploying new technology into processes simply because it is new. However, manufacturing process standardization is worth the effort because it makes the pursuit of operational excellence easier. It sets limits on what needs to change and the tools to use while providing the direction that changes must go toward:- Enhance employees’ experience by letting them know exactly how you measure their work
- Improve financial performance by identifying and eliminating redundant work
- Enable business agility by establishing processes that are easy to repeat and apply to new challenges
- Meet customers’ needs by including the right customer data in your processes
- Create visibility and transparency by having established, consistent processes everyone can see and understand
- Provide scalability by knowing where to insert new processes or delete old ones to meet new business requirements.
Locking in the Best Process
We use two main process standardization techniques: standard methods and mistake proofing.- Standard Method – Standard method means selecting one way to perform an activity, then having all employees use that method. We usually document the standard approach in work procedures, which becomes incorporated into company policies.
- Mistake Proofing – Error or mistake proofing involves detecting the possibility of a mistake in the processes and then removing the ability of that mistake to occur. Once you determine a standard process for doing so, you determine how best to make those changes permanent and lock in the new way. Using mistake-proofing techniques within the future-state design provides greater returns and discourages returning to the “old way.”
